Messiah Plus
by EisenKoubu
Summary: The second simulation has begun. Time has reset, and Imako Tanuma is once again set on the path he has long refused to take. This time, however, a single change of mind will greatly affect the fate of those he loves. Just what lies in store for him as he takes on an even darker path? Continuation of Messiah. It comes highly recommended to read that before reading this story.
I feel exhausted after running so far...but from what? I'm not sure why, but I check around frantically to see if the coast is clear. Finding no one, I rest myself against a tree in relief. My breathing is irregular and hoarse. My wheezing grows heavy and I cough up more blue stuff. My heart is beating so hard, it hurts. I barely have enough air to ask the question, "How did I...end up here?"

It feels so abrupt, being pulled out of your comfortable life like this. I'm too confused to feel miserable about it. I hear the frantic flapping of a bird's wings nearby. The whole scene is unfamiliar to me, to the point where I'm afraid for my well-being.

 _Come on, you can't rest now! Only a little ways closer to where I live._

A female voice, harsh and cold, pierces my mind. It frightens me to the point of a heart attack. I clutch my chest and cough violently, my mind scrambled between fear and agony. What have I done to deserve this?

"Who...said that? Where are...you?"

Each breath I utter grazes my wounded throat. The disembodied voice takes its time answering, as if disinterested in my predicament. It brings me to the conclusion that something, or someone, hates me.

 _Hurry! This way!_

The voice gives no sort of indication where it is coming from. What I do hear, however, is the flapping of a bird growing ever more distant in this dark forest. I have no other lead, so I lift myself off of the tree and stumble after the bird.

One slow, agonizing footstep follows another as I listen for the bird. The crunch of leaves, sometimes branches, gives me a chill up my spine. What makes this even more scary is the perfect darkness only a sheltered forest at night can provide. The sound of flapping wings is my only guide as I trudge through the unknown.

People always talk of Hell as a fiery prison where men who have done irredeemable crimes suffer eternal punishment. But I think there's nothing more uncomfortable and hopeless than being forever lost in a endless pit of darkness. There's no direction, no joy, and a constant loss of motivation and sanity. Every noise spooks me, and anything that touches me makes me jump. Using aural cues alone is no less difficult. I can't see anything in front of me. I'm tired and hungry, and my throat is scratchy from coughing every ten seconds. A little further walking in, and I'm starting to question why I'm following this sound in the first place.

The flapping suddenly stops. I scramble around in a panic, searching for the sound to no avail. I collapse on my knees, my darkened eyes widened. A light breeze grazes my shoulder in a weak attempt to comfort me. My sanity is at its breaking point, and I'm close to crying. I pray in silence for a light, a noise, something to direct me out of this place.

"Hey," a deadpan human voice addresses me. I turn towards it instantly. The dark outline of a figure about my height stands there, behind what looks like a cave with a light inside. I run towards this person with intense joy, tears brimming from my eyes and coughs spilling from my mouth. The figure pushes me back onto the ground like a school bully. As if my pain wasn't bad enough, now I have a bruise on my shoulder. If I didn't have a reason to cry before, I do now.

"You're such a baby," the female figure rebukes me in a cold voice. "Come, get inside."

Her harsh greeting makes me curse this world with groans of pain. The trees of the forest rustle and the winds howl around me. I desire the light, but it's so far away, and I can't move my limbs out of fear and pain...

I hear a sigh nearby. "You're hopeless..."

Suddenly I am picked up by the figure, and my limp arms are hoisted onto its shoulders. I cough a little more on my way up, perhaps getting some blue stuff on her. I want to apologize for that, but I have almost no breath to spare. All I can do is silently thank her with a kiss on her neck...

"Hey!" Instantly I am thrown back down on the ground and screamed at. "Y-you have no business doing that! I did not save you so you could kiss my neck!"

I can't argue with her. I'm almost completely dead by now.

* * *

I'm brought into a small room with a tiny fire directly in the middle of the room. I am laid to rest on a small wooden stools form an uneven circle around the fire. The angry arms that carried me leave to attend to some other business. Exhausted, my gaze never leaves the fire to look at my host.

"Dinner will be fixed up soon," the person, most likely a woman from the sound of it, begrudgingly tells me. "I don't care if you rest in the meantime. I hope you like onigiri, because that's all I have at the moment."

I grunt in response, my focus on the dancing fire. It's such a hypnotizing spectacle, one that eases all my fears and slows my heartbeat and breathing to a normal level. It doesn't make me less tired or hurt, however. Taking the woman's advice, I remove myself slowly from the stool, shove it aside and lie down on the flat wooden floor. My muscles relax and sink into the hard earth beneath me.

It takes a few minutes to realize how hard it is to fall asleep. Instead, I let my tired eyes gaze at the dimly-lit wooden ceiling. The whole cavern seems as if it is made of wood, which surprises me. It feels as if we're actually inside a tree rather than a cave. But that sounds impossible...

Then again, it sounds just as impossible to explain how I ended up here. My eyes droop in deep thought as I try to recall what happened before I ran into the forest.

"...Are you still alive?" The woman's quiet, deadpan voice echoes in the cavern. With a little of my breath back, I answer her as loud as I can.

"...Yeah."

"Thank goodness," her sigh of relief echoes back. I'm not sure what the deal is with this woman, but her words tell me that she wants me for something. I inhale deeply for a response.

"Are you..." Another deep breath. "...a prostitute?"

"Shut up," she answers with a deadpan, but sharp answer. "I'm not answering questions from the one who violated _me_."

I try making a comeback, but I end up coughing blue stuff onto my left cheek. "Uugh..."

The woman sighs again, before approaching me to wipe off the blue stuff from my cheek. I try to relax, but the rough wipe of a cloth burns my cheek. I groan in agony from both the burn and the abuse of my host. I want to leave, but I've nowhere else to go. My head's throbbing so hard, it's difficult to remember who I am.

The only thing I can remember so far is my name, Imako Tanuma. Everything else is still kind of a blur for me, a slosh of colors in the paint bucket of my memories. It hurts my head trying to concentrate on the past. I grab onto my head, wracked with pain.

"Dear mother Earth, what have they done to you?" I hear her faint whisper as if it were piercing my ear. I'm bordering on screaming, but as I open my mouth, a rice ball is shoved inside it. It hurts to chew, and I almost gag on it, swallowing bitter iron.

"Am I...going to die?" The words escape my mouth in a last plea for help.

"No," the woman gives a flat answer. "You're very tired and hurt, and whatever they injected in you is being expelled from your body. You will likely recover overnight, as long as they don't find us."

"...Who?" I ask almost naturally, with a painful wheeze.

"You've forgotten your pursuers?" She rebukes me with an angry leer. "Guardian is after the both of us! I rescued you from their hospital, remember?"

The swirl of memories corrects itself, at the cost of further damage to my head. This time, I scream. My flesh peels off the rail-thin bones of my body, exposing what's beneath to the air. It's indescribable how much it hurts, and the woman backs away in shock.

"Holy..." She runs to a corner of the cavern to grab something, before returning with what looks like a needle syringe. The pain I receive from the injection is unnoticeable compared to what I'm feeling elsewhere. All the pain dims as I lose consciousness...

* * *

I lay in a black void without feeling, sight or sound. I fear I have drifted back into that dark prison of a forest again. Just like I did there, I plead in my heart for a voice, a light, anything. Soon after, I receive to my grateful ears an answer.

 _Do you want to know?_

I desire an answer. Before I can respond positively, more voices, one by one, pass through my open ears.

 _It's not your fault, Tanuma-kun..._

Whose voice was this, I wonder? It seems so long ago, a nostalgic but sad feeling creeps up to me.

 _Didn't everyone say the first-years got a new transfer student today?_

This voice...it reminds me of my childhood. A responsible but cold-hearted girl, friends with a wuss like me...it makes me happy.

 _I have been assigned to watch you as a representative of Guardian until we reach the gates of Hell._

An emotionally-confused trooper and a dear friend of mine...I feel even happier. Something deeper is missing, and it confuses my heart. Who else was she supposed to be?

 _...Messiah shall...bring about the end of all things...Those that remain...bring to safety...on new earth._

The prophecy of Earth's Messiah...I've heard it before. It angers me, having a responsibility far bigger than myself thrown upon me. I'm no Messiah. I've never saved anyone, nor can I save anyone.

 _Do you want to save someone?_

Just who are you?! Why do you remind me of these things I already know? Leave me be...

 _It was you that wanted to know. You wanted to remember why you are here. There is no sin in remembering what has happened before._

If it didn't happen, then why am I hearing all this? Who are you to show me what hasn't happened?

 _To create a better future, my son, you must remember the past. Protect your closest allies, and convert your enemies. These are your instructions. Keep them, lest you should fall victim to Salvation.  
_

Wait, who are you? Come back! I have so many questions!

* * *

I jolt awake, my breathing rapid and my head throbbing. The woman from before is gone, and I hear loud noises coming from outside. I steadily get up on my feet, which are still full of dull pain. I limp as quickly as I can until I reach the spectacle outside.

The forest is lit up with unearthly lights, a mixture of sorcery and gunpowder explosions. Soldiers of an army I don't recognize fire relentlessly at the barrier of neon blue light. With each bullet fracturing the shield like a rock on broken glass, a painful groan can be heard some distance away from me. The brightly-lit figure of a cloaked woman with shoulder-length red hair holds up her arms like a prophet parting a river. I recognize this scene instantly, eyes widened with enlightenment.

"...Chizuru!"

She turns her head for one second, and a stray bullet snags her shoulder. As she collapses, so does the barrier, like a shattered window. Time slows to a crawl once again. I remember this scene. I had to make a choice here, one that would change my life in the long run. I could just as easily make the same decision, but a reminding voice runs through my head once again.

 _To create a better future...you must remember the past._

The highly-trained soldiers approach her lifeless body quickly. I must act now!

"Stop!" I limp out of the tree, and run to her in a hurry. "I'm the one you want, not her!"

"Hold your ground!" Another familiar, distinctly female voice gruffly commands the soldiers. Immediately they stop, just shy of Chizu-san's lifeless body. I sigh in relief as I collapse on my knees next to her. I cough out more blue crap onto the grass, my breath growing hoarse again.

"Tanuma-kun," the female voice addresses me in a scary tone. "Why did you run away?"

I turn my head at a snail's pace, trying to avoid the sharp pangs on my neck. A woman wearing a neat periwinkle suit and purple hair tied into a bun on her head stands shockingly close to me. I almost fall flat on my back (and in effect, Chizu-san's chest). That would have been nasty.

"Why do you protect this girl, clearly an agent of Gaia?" The woman's voice does not cease its frightening tone, a mixture of lightminded concern and the slitherings of a temptress. My face moistens with sweat as I hang along a fine line between her rack and Chizu-san's. The pain returns to my arms as I attempt to answer this devil of a woman.

"She's...important..." I answer her, shivering like a pair of plastic wind-up teeth. "Don't...hurt her..."

"I'm afraid you have no choice in the matter, Tanuma-kun," she immediately responds, her voice growing less seductive. "You can hardly speak. You're sick. You..." She takes a look at my arms, and her eyes widen with shock. "Heavens...your flesh is peeling off! Take him into the medical carrier!"

She barks orders to her soldiers, and like puppets they respond to her will. I cling to Chizu-san's abdomen like a child to her mother, refusing to part with her. The soldiers try their hardest to remove us from each other, and I feel my grip slipping quickly. I frantically come up with an idea to spare Chizu-san, which I scream with all the breath I have left:

"She's my sister! Don't take her away from me!"

The woman stops, gives me an odd look, then commands her men to pull harder. I scream and cry for Chizu-san's dear life, only to be pulled away from her by people far stronger than me. I continue to kick and scream until one of the soldiers beats the butt of his gun against my head.

* * *

I awaken in a hospital bed, feeling tired, sullen and defeated. My ankles and wrists are tied to the bed, and my neck is constricted to the point where all I can see is the sterile, empty white ceiling. My eyesight blurs with a river of tears. I recognize this as a kind of torture, in the same vein as the dark forest.

I feel isolated, helpless, and alone.

Sorrow converts to anger quickly. These Guardian people...if they did anything to Chizu-san, I'll never forgive them. I have to find Chizu-san and get away from this soulless prison.

"Tanuma...kun?" I hear yet another familiar feminine voice amidst the silence, but my mind is too noisy with angry thoughts to pay attention. Whomever it is should go away. She cannot comfort me, only the sight of Chizu-san alive and happy can.

"Tanuma-kun, are you awake? It's me," the voice speaks again with genuine concern for me. "It's Hitomi."

"Go away," I growl like a bear disturbed from its sleep.

"Tanuma-kun, please listen to me," Hitomi-san responds with desperation in her voice. "I know you feel hurt, but it's dangerous out there in your condition. You don't know..."

"I don't know what? What might be out there to kill me?!" I raise my voice. "Chizuru is not my enemy! She's my sister! She only wanted help, and what did you do?" I tighten my arms and grit my teeth. Hitomi-san grows afraid.

"Tanuma-kun, this isn't..."

"WHAT DID YOU DO TO CHIZURU?!" I yell so hard I start coughing again. Hitomi-san backs out of the room quickly, calling for help. My heart races and the searing pain flows back into my arms. I scream in agony and rage as my skin bursts open, exposing not bone but wooden branches. The restraints pop open quickly, and I leap off the bed.

I'm too angry to be surprised at the state of my arms. I race out of the room and crash my way down the halls, screaming Chizu-san's name. Guardian officers try shooting at me with personal handguns, but they aren't fast enough to catch a good shot. I tumble down a flight of stairs, hoping to find either Chizu-san or the exit somewhere.

"That's enough, Tanuma-kun!" The voice of the woman from before stops me with sharp demand once I've climbed down three floors. She's pointing some kind of specialized rifle at me with a tough but fear-ridden face. It makes me chuckle to see her cowering before me. What's even funnier is her follow-up line: "Stand down, and go back to your room. We can discuss this later."

Holy crap, I'm dying here. That's just rich. She thinks she can talk to me about this. There's no need to talk. For all I care, she killed Chizu-san. Therefore, she deserves a ticket to whatever otherworldly realm Guardian idiots go to. What did Hitomi-san call it? Holland?

"Tanuma-kun!" Hitomi-san steps in as well, perhaps as part of her vain attempt to comfort me. "Please listen to Nishikujou! She's only trying to help you, so don't make this any worse!"

"SHE...KILLED...CHIZURU!" I lash my tree arm furiously at her, which spreads in as many directions as the Earth wills. The tree continues to stretch violently, but it doesn't seem to be grabbing hold of anything. I see a blur of light behind it, swirling ever so quickly against the flow of roots. I push harder, forcing myself into the natural chaos. My anger will soon overwhelm the extent of my power. The question is, is it enough?

The cyclone of light prevails against my storm of roots, cutting my arm down faster than it can regenerate. I get a feeling of wooziness, much like how I was when I had anemia. Before the storm of light can overwhelm the rest of my body, I fall into a deep sleep.

* * *

Following a dreamless sleep, I jolt awake in a dark, cramped cell, wrapped in a straitjacket. I pant in shock, wondering if I died from that attack earlier. No, if I were dead I wouldn't have any weight, let alone be wrapped in a straitjacket. I breathe as slowly as I can, trying to calm my nerves and take a look around my new prison.

It's dark, but not pitch black. I can see sheets of metal lining the walls around me. The only light leaking in is from the thick door to my right. It's a blessing among all the horrible stuff that's gone on in the past few hours. However, I'm still asking myself if I really wanted to die. What better place than to be with Chizu-san, who's now my sister through a white lie? I really don't want to consider what she might say if I told her that.

Still...if she's dead, then what am I to live for?

In the midst of my contemplation, a gruff male voice shouts from the shutter of light. "Get up! You have a visitor!"

I crawl to my side, my face against the wall to block out the light from my eyes. I feel a forceful kick against my back, causing me to squeal.

"Look at me, Tanuma!' Nishikujou shouts angrily at me. "You don't want to be in more trouble than you already are!"

"You're a jerk," I groan as I roll over to face her. Ignoring my quip, she continues.

"I threw you in here because you're dangerous to everyone in this building," she scowls at me. "Your current behavior is much unlike you, Tanuma-kun. I intend to discover why."

She grabs me by the neck, and presses me against the wall. The impact is enough to reopen old wounds. I groan in pain while she continues to interrogate me. "What happened to you in that forest? Why could you possibly want to run away from us when we're trying to help you?"

"I don't...want help," I choke up. "I want...Chizuru..."

"Your 'sister', I presume?" She smirks. "I don't believe for a second that she's related to you."

"Adopted..." I build upon the lie's weak foundation in one struggling breath.

"Now that's just cute," she chuckles seductively. "But still, I am very reluctant to label you as a traitor. So if you would answer my question, perhaps I will let you out of this cell."

She drops me like a sack of cat dung, leaving me to struggle to get up. I take very exaggerated and stilted breaths, coughing up a storm before I rise slowly, painfully up. Nishikujou stares into my soul, and repeats her question.

"Why did you run away?"

I wait for my breathing to slow back down before answering. "I hated being tied to a bed. I was given a way out, and I took it. That's all."

I stare at her defensively, combating her soul-piercing stare. Nishikujou sighs in relief, breaking off contact. I relax my own muscles soon afterwards, letting my gaze drop to the inviting shadows on the floor.

"I half-expected it to be something far worse," she muses with a dry giggle. "I'll be sure to tell Hitomi-chan the good news."

She walks out of the cell, leaving me in a tired and numb state of feeling. I don't have the strength to crawl back to the hard metal bed. I slump myself down on the floor, trying to get as comfy as I would the bed. I groan with each movement, with breathing especially feeling like a chore. I can't recall if I felt this terrible before. Then again, it hurts to recall anything after everything that's happened.

I must have been lying down for roughly two hours before the same gruff male voice announces I have another visitor. I don't stand up. I can't stand up. All I can do is turn my head to see who the visitor is.

"Tanuma-kun," Hitomi-san addresses me. "Are you alright?"

Seeing Hitomi-san's figure again makes me feel guilty about myself, and I turn away towards the ceiling. Hitomi-san steps in and kneels next to me, a sorrowful look on her eyes.

"It's okay if you don't answer," she moans. "I just want someone to talk to."

I roll my eyes. I don't recall Hitomi having any sort of attachment to me. She made herself distant and was far more interested in doing her job than interacting with me. Why she decided to express concern for me, I might never know. Regardless, I'm more interested in this sexy metal ceiling than whatever sob story she has for me.

"I'm sorry about this morning," she continues in her melancholy. "I was really worried about you. You've been acting strange as soon as you were brought back. I thought that Gaian girl had taken you from me...but Nishikujou told me what you said earlier, so that comforts me."

"Don't call her that..." I mumble angrily.

She looks at me with expectation upon hearing my voice. "Huh?"

"I said, don't call her 'Gaian girl!'" I shout at her. She jumps back in visible surprise and fear, close to crying. I keep screaming at her. "Her name's Chizuru! You cold-hearted killers have no right to address her as anything else!"

"Tanuma-kun, please stop..." She's weeping. I'm too angry to comply with her request.

"What did you come here for? To torture me with your empty sentimental words? Those won't bring my sister back!" I adamantly insist Chizuru is my sister, hoping that the longer I stick to that story, the easier it will be to lie about it.

"I just...wanted to talk..." It becomes harder for Hitomi-san to form complete sentences, half of her words becoming incomprehensible blubbers amidst her tears.

I couldn't care less. "I don't want to hear your bullcrap! Get out!"

"But..."

"GET OUT!" My rage-filled screech rings beyond the confines of my cell, where it may have damaged the eardrums of some people along with some sturdy windows. Hitomi-san is left with no choice but to run out of the room, bawling her eyes out. I could kick a wall right now if I could move my legs.

"Darn it! Let me out of this straitjacket, you tools!" I shout at no one in particular. I feel incurably angry, not just at the death of Chizu-san but at the entirety of Guardian for causing it. I want to burst out of this cocoon and tear apart their limbs one by one, but I can't feel my arms.

"...Why can't I grow them back?" I'd be long gone if I could do so. Instead, my arms wiggle around like tiny stumps. I think I can guess what they did. Urgh...why am I so unlucky today?

* * *

 _Interlude – Chizuru_

I wake up in a metal box, not unlike the one that imprisons my heart. Those Guardian scum sure know how to make me feel like a complete failure of a person. They claim to protect humanity, and emphasize personal change. Humanity is doomed because it cannot protect itself, and it is the world itself that needs change because humanity pollutes it. Hypocrites disgust me, as do the undeserved chains that bind my hands. I try to force my hands out of the chains, but a ragged, deep voice stops me.

"Don't bother." I turn to the voice with surprise, as I didn't see anyone upon being thrown in here. I can't see him either, so I cautiously press for details.

"Who are you?" I ask carefully.

"The question is, young one," he croaks exhaustively, "would you rather know me as an old fool who doomed both the Earth and everything on it, or a man who only did what was required of him to save his family?"

"I have the patience to know you better, old man," I answer honestly, but still cautiously. "There's too many people I see in a negative light, so I would rather see if you're worth anything to me."

"Ah, yes," the old man relaxes. "You sound very much like my daughter. I sacrificed so much for her welfare, I might have forgotten what she looks like. Could you come closer, child?"

Part of me wants to call out his patronizing, but I'm genuinely curious as to who this man is. I scoot forward so that the small amount of light available allows us to faintly see both our faces. My eyes widen as I examine his features. Gray, thinning hair...blue eyes like mine...work-torn hands and bulky arms...I know this man.

"...Father?"

"Chizuru."

Tears stream from my eyes. I fall upon the man in front of me, crying on his chest. I've searched for him for almost a year now, restlessly eking out an existence in the hollow of a tree. I almost surely thought he had perished by now...

"There, there, poor girl," he soothes me with a comforting voice. His hand strokes my shoulder-length hair like clean satin on the skin. If I were a cat, I would be purring right now, it feels so comfortable. I raise my head and look upon his face again with tearful eyes.

"I thought I might never find you," I blubber as I wipe my tears. "You were gone for so long..."

Father's face falls grim, as if disappointed by what I've said. "It's even more of a shame Guardian found you," he expresses his disappointment. "The world would not have lost much if I were to die."

Angry at his demoralizing words, I raise my voice. "I would have lost everything! Mother never comes out anymore, and the other summoners think I'm a deviant. The school's not safe anymore, and anyone else I know is either captured or killed. You're all I've got left..."

Father sighs. Something deeper seems to be troubling him, but he speaks up before I can ask. "What about Tanuma-kun?"

"Tanuma-kun?" I hate that poor sap's guts, but even I'm aware of how significant he is to Gaia's plans. I close my eyes, trying to feel his presence, his feelings, his state of consciousness. "I do feel something...but it's very volatile. He's very confused, angry even."

Father shakes his head in grief. "This is not good," he confides to me. "We don't know how much he knows about his powers, but if he were to even accidentally trigger it, no one in this building is coming out alive. Guardian is making a terrible mistake keeping him here."

"I agree," I respond in kind. "But we can't do anything about it like this."

Both of us truly feel helpless. Father sighs in defeat, as do I. He then raises his head, turning to the small sliver of light emanating out of the doorslit.

"We'll just have to pray that Tanuma-kun will learn to control himself," he utters with a breath of hope.

 _End of Interlude_

* * *

EisenKoubu here! Thanks for reading my first chapter! I assume most of you have read Messiah already, and if you have, welcome back! If not, GO READ IT. PLEASE. THANK YOU.

Anyway, this section is called Messiah+, because in keeping with the theme of Rewrite, and because Rewrite+ is coming out later this year, I thought it would make sense to name the Chizuru route after this. Yes, the aim of this new project is to focus on Chizuru as a character. Some of you may not like Chizuru, and that's understandable. She's not exactly the nicest person in the cast, but she certainly harbors some concern for Imako's welfare. I tried to make her ambiguously attracted to Imako in the first Messiah, but it's my ultimate goal to help her realize her true feelings for him in a creative way with this story. I hope you look forward to the result! ^_^

Special thanks to my Rewrite lore master HeliosAlpha for some crucial changes to the first draft of this chapter. It gives me a dark pleasure every time he calls me an idiot~ ;)


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